Josh, I and then Henry and Nathan all booked in early February and the wait until the second week of the month edged along quickly, spurred on by mouthwatering reports from coastal sea watching locations around Sydney.
The day arrived and we all had high hopes after several days of strong easterlies previous and decent conditions promised for the day itself. We all met at Mosman Bay Wharf and were aboard the Halicat soon after and heading to the open sea after picking up the rest of the day's participants from Rose Bay.
Australian Pied Cormorant was added to the year list on the way out and our first real seabird of the day was a Pomarine Jaeger at the heads. Josh then spotted a White-bellied Sea Eagle high up, and not five minutes later, we got onto an Arctic Jaeger heading west and then we managed to get a couple of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters trailing the boat. The 'wedgies' became an ever present feature of the day, we had a group of 30 avg. following behind all day. Next, Josh got onto a Short-tailed Shearwater - a long overdue tick for him!
A few Flesh-footed Shearwaters soon joined our trail and then a couple of 'Fluttering-type' shearwaters were spotted off port.
The first tropical bird of the day came around half-way to the shelf - a single Streaked Shearwater. A tick for all four of us and many others on board, we had reasonable views of it as it followed the boat at a distance for a short while. Note: It was confirmed from photos that there were actually two Streaked Shearwaters near the boat at this time, not one!
We got to Brown's Mountain at the continental shelf around 10am and after a distant sighting of a Sooty Tern, started up the burley and cut the motors. Within about 15 minutes we had a couple of Great-winged Petrels join the foray of 'Fleshies' and 'Wedgies'. Then some more excitement as a beautiful White-necked Petrel was spotted off starboard. It circled around, about 30 metres from the boat and all on board got decent views - a tick for all four of us and our second tropical bird for the day.
Eventually we headed off again, north along the shelf. More jaegers then a Sooty Tern cruising along right next to the top deck! A great looking tern and my third tick for the day.
The next couple of hours were spent motoring around, pretty much in circles, following a couple of feeding flocks of shearwaters, but not seeing much else. We began a slick while heading north and around 1pm came the highlight of the day. The call of "Red-footed Booby!" came up as I was inside getting a snack, but I rushed out back and quickly got tickable views of the booby gliding north alongside the boat. I got back up on deck and was amazed to find it had all but completely vanished into the distance already! Nevertheless, a highly unprecedented tick for all of us and only the 10th record for NSW and the first (?) off Sydney!
From then on everybody was fairly content and we began motoring west. Neither Josh or Henry were feeling particularly well up until we saw the booby, but they soon forgot about their insides with that bird under their belts.
Just before the heads we added Hutton's Shearwater, our last seabird for the day and just before we were bucketed down upon by heavy rain. We got into Mosman Bay around 3:30pm and headed home thoroughly pleased with the day's outcome.
My faith in pelagics has been renewed!
Thanks for reading.
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Wedge-tailed Shearwater #2
Wedge-tailed Shearwater #3
White-necked Petrel
Pomarine Jaegar
Pomarine Jaegar
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